The Sweetest Photographs of the Queen as a Young Girl
As the Queen’s historic Platinum Jubilee continues, her 70 years on the throne will be rehashed in minute detail, but the quarter-century preceding her coronation was equally remarkable. From the moment she became heir presumptive following the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936, her father, George VI, set about training the young Elizabeth for the role of Queen. (The famously diffident George struggled constantly with anxiety about his position. “I never wanted this to happen,” he tearfully said to Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten after Edward’s surprise royal exit. “I’ve never even seen a state paper. I’m only a naval officer—it’s the only thing I know about.”)
To ensure his daughter felt better prepared, George commissioned Eton College provost, Henry Marten, to teach his daughter the fundamentals of British history and law, with Elizabeth traveling from Windsor Castle to see him each week. A true eccentric, Marten would let his pet ravens fly around the leather-bound volumes that crowded his study while he quizzed the young princess on The Law and Custom of the Constitution by Sir William Anson. It’s telling that virtually every prime minister during the Queen’s reign has commented on her unusually detailed knowledge of British jurisprudence as a result. Back at home, Elizabeth worked her way through the classics of the Western canon during scheduled “silent reading” time every day, from Charles Dickens to Jane Austen.
It’s the Queen’s other hobbies during her childhood that became lifelong passions, though. Under the guidance of Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, the princess began writing a nightly diary, a practice she has kept up without fail every night since George’s coronation. Her father, meanwhile, taught her to ride in and around Windsor Great Park, which remains one of her favorite pastimes. He also gifted her with her first Welsh corgi, Dookie. The future monarch became completely enamored with the breed, keeping up to a dozen pups at any given time, with the corgis running around her “like a moving carpet,” as Diana, Princess of Wales put it.
Perhaps the most formative experience of all for the young royal, though? The Second World War. In spite of advice from royal counselors who feared for her safety, Elizabeth remained in Windsor throughout the conflict. (As the Queen Mother told courtiers flatly, “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave the King. And the King will never leave.”) Instead, Elizabeth kept busy by digging “victory” gardens, joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service, and organizing Christmas pantomimes for Berkshire locals, which she would star in alongside Princess Margaret. Below, a look back at the sweetest photographs of the future monarch as a girl.